Study about the Improvement of Motor and Functional Potential in Children Aged 6 to 9 Years Using the Means of Athletics

We are being witnesses of a phenomenon involving a decrease in the average age of Olympic and World champions and implicitly a new trend of sports debut at an early age, because achieving performance at the world level requires at least 8 years of training. Globally, there is a trend to start selection at younger ages in most sports branches, which has determined a new perspective in athletics too, as regards the debut of selection and instruction. Because the athletic performance involves a long period of preparation and a high volume and intensity of exercise, the age of initial selection is recommended to decrease up to 6-7 years, so that to insure a gradual, progressive development of the systems and thus the biological factors required for performance can be raised to a superior level. Obviously, there have been enough controversies related to decreasing the age of debut in athletics. In this regard, the present study aims to investigate the possibilities of improving the motor and functional potential of children aged 6 to 9 years using the emulative-playful athletic means. The study was conducted in the school year 2012-2013 at the Elementary School no. 190 of Bucharest, on classrooms with an athletics sports profile. To assess the children's motor and functional potential, functional measurements and motricity trials were performed during initial, intermediate and final testing. Analysis of the processed results has revealed an improvement in the motor parameters of children aged 6 to 9 years, but not in the functional parameters. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk